Dustin Daniel Cretton Tapped to Direct Marvel’s SHANG-CHI Movie

The Hawaiian-born writer/director has several connections with current MCU personnel, having directed Brie Larson in both Short Term 12 and The Glass Castle, Larson and Michael B. Jordan on the upcoming Just Mercy, and is working with Ryan Coogler on a autobiographical project called Minors.

After the success of Black Panther, Marvel Studios is looking at creative talents with the background to tackle diverse characters from their pantheon.

What do you think about Destin Daniel Cretton as the director of the Shang-Chi film? Previously, the studio recruited Asian-American screenwriter Dave Callaham to pen the script. Callaham is also co-wrote Wonder Woman 1984 with Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns and is now writing the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for Sony. No actor is yet attached to Shang-Chi and there's no official word from Marvel, since the studio isn't now talking about its future slate post Spider-Man: Far From Home.

As for Cretton, a half-Japanese filmmaker who was born in Hawaii, he seems very much in line with the type of directors Marvel has been choosing recently. Unlike the other Marvel martial arts heroes, Shang-Chi headlined his own comic book series, The Master of Kung Fu. Additionally, he is now directing Just Mercy, a biopic about Civil Rights attorney Bryan Stevenson starring Larson and Michael B. Jordan. I wouldn't be surprised if Larson put a good word in for Cretton with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. What we do know is that at some point, mutants will be introduced into the franchise, The Eternals will shed some light on the deep history of the universe and we also know that the studio is eager to get Shang-Chi into production. He has since taken a back seat, but with news of a new movie it's likely that Marvel will push the character to the forefront of their publishing initiative.